Surprising Ways to Save Your Memory

Exercise AND work on a computer. Plus, two more health tips

by Norine Dworkin-McDaniel

Photograph: Shutterstock.com

Keep Your Brain In Tip-Top Shape . . . by using your computer and getting some exercise. Doing both in the course of your day staves off memory loss better than either activity alone, possibly because each helps preserve brain functioning in a different way, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic.

Just Ask Why. . . when your doctor recommends a procedure. That’s part of the “Choosing Wisely” campaign to encourage patients to discuss some treatment practices that doctors may call for out of habit more than necessity. To see 45 procedures identified as questionable, go to choosing wisely.org and click on “Lists.”

Be Vigilant About Getting Mammograms . . . if you’ve gottena test result that wrongly said you might have breast cancer. In a Danish study, women who received false-positive reports were up to twice as likely to develop breast cancer over the next 12 years as those whose reports were negative.